Joyride

Notch-tailed cadets
take turns in the traffic pattern
without benefit of control tower,
sweeping downwind,
shouldering baseleg,
gliding into low approach,
dipping, diving under
a graveled bridge along
Old Creamery Road,

emerging upwind, into
a steep Immelmann turn
against a peach and mauve glow
on September evening,

chattering and fluttering afresh
into the traffic pattern
of young barn swallows,
dark above a flash of rosy tan,
crosswind, downwind,
for yet another spin.

(2006)